Woman is 2nd known person to 'cure' herself of HIV without medical treatment

Medical experts believe her immune system may have flushed out the virus naturally.

Nov. 17, 2021

Woman is 2nd known person to 'cure' herself of HIV without medical treatment

In an extremely rare case fascinating the global medical community, a woman in Argentina has managed to rid all signs of HIV in her body, without the use of drugs or medical treatments like stem cell transplantation.

According to a report by Annals of Internal Medicine, medical experts were unable to find any traces of the virus in her body, even after looking through billions of her cells – 1.188 billion peripheral blood mononuclear cells and 503 million mononuclear cells, to be precise.

This news presents a ray of hope in the fight against HIV and AIDS, as well as the journey to look for a viable cure.

Out of sight.

IMAGE: NCI / Unsplash

The Argentinian, referred to as the 'Esperanza (Hope) patient' out of her desire to remain anonymous, was first diagnosed with HIV-1 back in 2013. In regular check-ups that took place in the eight years since her initial diagnosis, doctors noticed fewer and fewer signs of the virus in her body, until one day when they just couldn't find any traces at all.

While it's virtually impossible to confirm whether the Esperanza patient was truly cured of HIV, Professor John Frater from the University of Oxford says experts had done "as much as could be asked of them with current technology" to say with absolute certainty that the patient had indeed been free of the virus.

"The key question is whether this patient has actually cured themselves or, alternatively, had some form of abortive infection, which tried to get going but the embers were snuffed out early," Frater said.

Abortive infection, also known as bacterial suicide, is a phenomenon that occurs when infected cells (in this case, cells infected with HIV) commit 'suicide' – killing themselves before being able to replicate and spread.

"Her immune system clearly shows a memory of having been infected, so there seems to be no question that she was."

While this interesting antiviral immune strategy hasn't been confirmed to have occurred in the Esperanza patient, it certainly is a possibility.

IMAGE: tomash40 / Pixabay

Other experts believe that the Argentinian may be what the medical community refers to as an 'elite controller', people whose immune systems have natural resilience to the virus, forgoing the need for medical intervention.

But even as an elite controller, the Esperanza patient is truly a unique case. Other elite controllers still show signs of the virus at times, depending on how hard experts look for them. In the Argentinian's case, even the far limits of medical technology can't seem to find anything.

"What distinguishes her from all other described elite controllers and post-treatment controllers is the absence of detectable intact HIV-1 proviruses and replication-competent HIV-1 viral particles in large numbers of cells," researchers say.

Not the first to be 'cured'.

Loreen Willenberg is the world's first known person to naturally 'beat' HIV. IMAGE: aidsmap

Loreen Willenberg of San Francisco, California was diagnosed with HIV back in 1992.

In 2019, she became the world's first known person to naturally 'beat' HIV when doctors realized they couldn't find any trace of the virus in her body. The only possibility that experts have pointed to is her body's immune system naturally fighting off the virus.

"Does this imply that our patient has developed a sterilizing cure during natural infection? We believe this is likely, but it cannot be proved," researchers studying the Esperanza patient's case said.

"Scientific concepts can never be proved through empirical data collection; they can only be disproved. In the context of HIV-1 research, this means that it will be impossible to empirically prove that anybody has achieved a sterilizing cure."

Despite the lack of 'proof', scientists are optimistic about the possibility of harnessing the powers of a sterilizing cure for HIV-1.